Saturday, 29 August 2009

We're just back from a lovely week in Dorset but holiday photos will have to wait for a few days as I have something more exciting to share with you today. We've just been out to pick up a copy of Period Living magazine as one of my egg cosies is featured within it's pages!

A few months ago I started selling a small selection of my items on a website called 'notmassproduced.com' and some weeks ago the lady who runs the site rang me to say that Period Living had seen my 'I love eggs' egg cosy and wanted to feature it in the magazine and could I send a good quality photo. So I took the best photo I could, sent it off and kept my fingers crossed. I've kept checking for the October issue not really knowing for sure if the cosy would be in until yesterday when we popped into a newsagent for some chocolate before leaving Dorset and there it was. I started to leaf through the pages with baited breath and there it was. Not only featured, but right in the middle of the page and probably the most eye catching item as everything else on the page is blue so the flash of read embroidery really stands out.

Oh I can't even begin to describe to you how pleased I am about this. I've been selling odd bits and bobs every month though the various sites I'm on, but not as much as I would like. I'm not in a position to advertise what I do at the moment as finances wouldn't allow it, so blogging and twittering is the only way I have of letting people know what I'm selling. So to be featured in such a lovely magazine as Period Living, is, I hope, a little bit of advertising, and I total confidence booster. As you will know, I'm desperately searching for a job at the moment, but I would dearly love to make my living by selling my creations instead. Obviously I'm under no illusion that I'm suddenly going to get a deluge of orders from this feature and be able to stop my job search, but you never know, it might just bring me the odd new customer and it certainly gives me the boost to keep at it. With Simon back to School next week and that new start feeling in the air I always get at this time of year, I feel the need to re-organise my work space this week and get cracking on some new stock.

Back again after the weekend with pretty pictures of Dorset. Have a lovely weekend. x

Friday, 21 August 2009

Pictures rather than words today. I realised that I never shared any images from our Honeymoon with you yet we took literally hundreds of photos. Infact, near 1000 I think! This afternoon I've been making a collage of just a few. Hope you like them.

Salzburg and Munich. Any fans of 'The Sound of Music' may recognise the image bottom right.

Monday, 17 August 2009

The above title describes my current state very well! I just can't seem to decide what to do. To blog or not to blog. To carry on with making my creations and trying to sell them or not?

Further to my last post announcing that I wouldn't be blogging anymore, I've kind of changed my mind. I've just been taking a little wander around blog land and I know that I would miss it. It's just that I've slightly lost my blogging oomph at bit. It has a great deal to do with the fact I'm still unemployed. It's now 10 months since I lost my job. I girl can only take so many knock backs and in a market where there are so few jobs to apply for it's disheartening when the ones you do apply for you are either under qualified or as today, over-qualified. I went for a job at a bathroom showroom recently. It was mainly sales but when they saw my CV they started talking about offering a design service. All in all I had three interviews with them taking about 3 and a half hours in total, not to mention the research time I spent and the time putting together some ideas of what I could offer. Only to find that they have given the job to another candidate who will be able to 'shift bathrooms quickly' apparently! They say they would like to work with me perhaps on a free-lance basis offering a design service but I'm not holding my breathe. I have a feeling it's all talk and at the end of the day it's not a job with a salary which is what I really need.

So you can probably understand a little of why I'm feeling rather fed up lately. I've lost all my creative inspiration too which is why there is nothing new in the etsy shop. I'm hoping to sell everything off with the hope of a. making a few much needed pennies, and b. having empty studio shelves in the hope of inspiring myself to make some new things.

But my little roam around blog land has given me just a little bit of a boost this evening and reminded me what I used to love about blogging. I've just been looking at Jane's gorgeous new bathroom which cheered me up no end. And a went on a lovely walk around Niki's village which definitely put a smile on my face. There were many other lovely things to be seen on my travels. I want to still be a part of this. I don't want to give up.

I'M STILL HERE and I'll try to cheer myself up a bit and write some pretty blog posts again. Bare with me will you?